Friday, June 8, 2018

Moments of Clarity (5/20/18)

On Sunday, May 20th, I was elected to serve as the Pastor for First Presbyterian Church in Freehold, New Jersey. This is the sermon I preached for my candidacy. In this sermon I discuss my faith journey and how it brought me to Freehold. My first Sunday in the pulpit at Freehold will be July 8th.

Good morning. I am so excited to be here this morning. I am
filled with joy! This is the day I’ve been thinking about since I began
seminary. I felt a little bit like this on the first Sunday at the first
congregation I served, but this is different. My first call was to interim
ministry. If the way be clear, I will be your next installed pastor, that’s a
different sort of relationship; it’s the relationship that I believed I was
called to when I started this process several years ago. The idea of
relationship is central to my journey.

In many ways, I’ve been preparing for this moment my whole
life, but there are several inflection points, places along my journey where
there was a fork in the road; my path changed and I could never go back. If I
had to pick one of those inflection points, it would be a moment of clarity
that I had in December of 2008, and the insight that came from it.

How many of you are familiar with the term, moment of
clarity? It’s used in recovery circles. A moment of clarity happens when an
addict recognizes the need to change, that he or she cannot overcome the
addiction alone, and also, that life cannot move forward until that person
begins the path toward sobriety.

My moment of clarity was a little bit different. A couple
months earlier, I’d been given notice that I would be laid off from my job at
the end of the year. Honestly, I didn’t like my job, but I loved everything
else that was going on in my life. And the part of my life that gave me the
most joy and fulfillment was my church, and the web of relationships that was
centered around that congregation.

I’d thought about seminary then, but after a long
conversation with my pastor, it seemed like the timing wasn’t quite right. I
didn’t have a clear sense of call then. Going to seminary because I was about
to be unemployed wasn’t a calling to ministry; seminary would have to wait.

By December, the economy was getting worse and it seemed
like it would be difficult to find a job in my field. I had some job prospects
in Philly, but I really didn’t want to move. I wanted to spend more time with
the people who made my life so rich.

I couldn’t get into the Christmas spirit that year. Most
nights my fear and anxiety would spiral out of control. I didn’t know what I
would do or how I could afford to make my life work. Sure, there was
unemployment, but how would I ever find another job? How could I live on half
of my paycheck? Should I stay in western Pennsylvania or move back to Philly?

In the midst of that cycle of fear and anxiety, I had a
moment of clarity. I thought: “Instead of making my job the organizing
principle of my life, what if I made my relationships the organizing principle
of my life?” First and foremost was the web of relationships that was woven
around my church.

In an instant, all of my anxiety went away. I knew that I
would stay in western Pennsylvania and find a way to make it work.

A couple weeks later, a friend from church gave me some
advice on where to look for a job. It was a simple bit of advice and it paid
off. I found three jobs that looked like a fit. I applied to all three, got interviews
with two, and landed a job with one, all in the space of three months.

And that job was the best job I ever had in the secular
world. I went from a toxic workplace environment to an office that was friendly
and fun. I had a boss who valued all of the employees and treated everyone with
dignity and respect. And on top of all that, my salary increased by 25%.

That job was great. It gave me a place of stability. A year
later, I went on a mission trip to Nicaragua, and after that trip, and after
six months’ worth of processing, I was able to discern a call to ministry. I
couldn’t have discerned my call without having that job, which afforded me the
time and money to travel, and the security to process the experience. Also, I
couldn’t have done that sort of discernment without my church family.

Now I realize I’ve been talking a lot about myself. Please
forgive me—I’m an only child, so talking about myself comes naturally. But I’m
not telling this part of my story to make you think I’m wonderful. I do believe
that this part of my journey relates to both of our scriptures this morning, as
well the story of this congregation.

Today we celebrate Pentecost; this is the day when the
Church celebrates the action of the Holy Spirit in the world, and this is evident
in both of the readings we heard this morning. In the first reading, the
prophet Ezekiel is visited by God’s Spirit—the Holy Spirit! It’s worth pointing
out that the Hebrew word, ruach,
which is translated as spirit, can also be translated as wind or breath. Any
faithful Jew, listening to this story in ancient times would surely have heard
all three of those meanings.

The Spirit showed Ezekiel a vision of valley of the dry
bones, then God asks Ezekiel, “Mortal, can these bones live?” Then God commands
him:

“Prophesy to these
bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.Thus
says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breathto
enter you, and you shall live.I will lay sinews on you, and
will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breathin you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

Ezekiel became a prophet
during the exile in Babylon; he was a captive. The kingdom of Judah had been
torn apart by the Babylonians. This was a crisis of faith and identity for the
exiles.

Yet in the midst of their suffering, God speaks to the
people, through the prophet Ezekiel, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And
Ezekiel tells them that they may live again. God can clothe the dry bones with
muscle and tendons and skin, but the dead don’t truly come back to life until
God breathes his Spirit into the once-dead bones! Spirit, wind, breath; these
are from God. This is how God restores life!

We all know that church doesn’t occupy the place of
prominence in our society that it once did. Many of us grew up in an era when
the pews and the collection plates were always full. And I know that you folks
have had your struggles here in this congregation, too. I know that you’ve been
through some tough times, too. No doubt, some of you might have asked, “Lord,
can these bones live?” But you never gave up.

I’m not here to offer you an easy answer to that question.
First, I think you’ve already determined that the answer is yes. Second, I
think a better question is, “Lord, how
can we live?” There’s a straightforward answer to that question. You live
through relationship, which is enabled by the movement of the Holy Spirit.
Also, you do God’s work, as the Church, through relationship. And you have
brought me here today to determine if I will be a part of the web of
relationships here at First Presbyterian Church of Freehold.

First Presbyterian Church, Freehold

I began this sermon by telling you a story about a low
point in my life and how that low point was transformed in a moment of clarity.
I didn’t understand it at the time, but I now realize that my moment of clarity
came from the Holy Spirit. At a moment when I was feeling down, when it felt
like my world was spinning out of control, there was the still, small voice
telling me to make relationships the organizing principle of my life. It took
me a lot of self-examination, three years of seminary, and a bunch of
ordination exams to put language around my experience, but I know it was a Holy
Spirit thing.

In this congregation’s mission statement, you folks say
that you: “seek… to share the Love of Christ, teach the Word of God, and
celebrate the gifts of all people.” I believe this is done through
relationship. Also, I believe that this is the antidote to the chaos of the
world around us, and you are correct to identify this church as a place of
refuge from that chaos.

But simply being a place of refuge isn’t enough. We are
called to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations; we are
called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Those are really
big tasks! And those are also really scary tasks. Tasks that we don’t always
want to take on, or that we feel we don’t have the right tools for the tasks.

The Book of Acts shows us how the first Apostles were
called to continue Christ’s mission here on earth. Our reading this morning
shows how God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, equipped the Apostles for
that mission. Simply put, the Spirit gave them the ability to hear one another.
That’s it. The Spirit equipped all of the believers to truly listen to one
another—nobody learned to speak a new language, but they were all empowered to
listen!

There was no church before Pentecost. Through the movement
of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles were able to build a movement that could not
be extinguished. We are called to continue that work. And yes, it’s an enormous
task, but all we have to do is fall in with the movement of the Spirit, and God
will continue to equip us for the work.

I believe that you folks have been attuned to the movement
of the Holy Spirit for some time, even if you haven’t thought of it in these
terms. The Spirit, along with a couple of interim pastors, has inspired you to
take a long, hard look at yourselves. The Spirit, along with a behavioral
Covenant, has taught you how to listen to one another more effectively. Through
the process of self-examination, you folks have discerned a vision for this
congregation: to grow in spirit and mission, and to continue to minister to the
community outside these walls. That, too, is the movement of the Spirit. I want
to be part of that mission, too! I want to work with you, through relationship
and empowered by the Spirit, so that this congregation can live into its
vision. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Benediction

Now, beloved, as you depart from this place, remember that
we are called to be the Church, the body of Christ in the world today. Go forth
and be instruments of God’s love and peace and reconciliation. Go forth and be
witnesses to the resurrection. Do not return evil for evil to any person, but
know that we are all loved by God, and that we are called to reflect that love
to everyone we meet. Go forth and be the salt of the earth and the light of the
world. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, let all God’s children say, Amen!